EUROPEAN REPORT - SGP Gorzow

Image courtesy of Taylor Lanning Photography

None of the three GB riders will remember the Grand Prix of Poland at Gorzow with any great fondness, with Tai Woffinden the most seriously affected.

Woffinden had shown signs of improving his GP fortunes with a super ride to win his opening race in Heat 4 – but disaster struck in his second outing when he clashed with Kai Huckenbeck, clipped the fence on the exit of turn two, and crashed heavily.

To add insult to injury, Woffinden was very harshly excluded for the incident, not that he would have been fit to take his place in the re-run.

With concussion and a broken elbow in four places, the GB captain is once again ruled out of the Speedway of Nations, and it remains to be seen whether he has any chance of racing again this season, with the first target being the British GP at Cardiff on August 17.

Elsewhere, Robert Lambert’s hopes of chasing down Bartosz Zmarzlik took a major hit as he suffered easily his worst GP of the year, scoring just four points on a night where nothing went right.

And Dan Bewley also failed to make it to the semi-finals, scoring seven points, and his big frustration came in Heat 20 when he initially held the lead which would have taken him into the top eight ahead of Szymon Wozniak, but he was overtaken either side by Mikkel Michelsen and Huckenbeck.

Fredrik Lindgren went on to win the meeting with a brilliant pass of Zmarzlik in the Final whilst Michelsen took third place, whilst some consolation for Lambert was the fact that Jack Holder failed to make the Final after crashing when battling with Leon Madsen in his semi.

It means Zmarzlik goes into the summer break with a massive 27-point lead at the top of the standings, with Holder now back into second place on 77, but four riders are covered by five points with Michelsen on 75, whilst Lindgren and Lambert both have 72. Bewley is ninth on 49, 16 points adrift of the top six.

The Grand Prix at Gorzow meant there was no regular round of PGE Ekstraliga fixtures, but Wroclaw consolidated their position with a comfortable home win over Czestochowa in a re-arranged meeting.
The hosts won 54-36 with Bewley in double figures on 11+1 from five rides, with Artem Laguta and Bartlomiej Kowalski also in the major points.
Woffinden scored four points from four outings and Wroclaw must now plan for their upcoming meetings without him following his surgery. Michelsen top-scored for Czestochowa with 10 points.

The result means all clubs have now completed nine matches, with Wroclaw back up to second place in the table albeit a massive eight points adrift of leaders Lublin.

Czestochowa are three points behind in fourth place, whilst only two points cover the bottom four with Torun and Zielona Gora both on seven, whilst Grudziadz and Leszno have five, with five matches each remaining.

It was a busy weekend in Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga with Poznan the big winners as they took two victories in the space of 24 hours.

First they picked up a 51-39 victory over Lodz with Ryan Douglas scoring 13 points from five rides, and then they pulled off a 49-41 away win at bottom club Gdansk, for whom Tom Brennan scored four from four outings.

Poznan briefly went top of the table but were overhauled the following day again by Ostrow, who slammed Rybnik 62-28 with Gleb Chugunov scoring a 15-point maximum – and it completed a weekend of defeats for the visitors, who also lost out at Rzeszow as the home side won 46-44.

That meeting saw Nicki Pedersen wind back the clock with a 14+1 paid maximum for the home side, although did Rybnik hold on for the bonus point.

Sunday’s fixtures in the second tier saw Bydgoszcz miss the chance to go back to the top, having to be content with just the bonus point from a 46-44 defeat at Lodz as the home side won it with a 5-1 in Heat 15 from Benjamin Basso and Oliver Berntzon over Huckenbeck and Krzysztof Buczkowski.

Elsewhere Rzeszow made it a weekend double with a surprise 50-40 win at Krosno, all of which means Gdansk are now cut adrift at the bottom, trailing Rzeszow by a massive seven points with only five matches remaining.

In the National Speedway League, Adam Ellis was in excellent form for Pila in the final meeting at their home stadium prior to redevelopment.

Ellis scored 12+2 from five rides in a 58-32 win over Daugavpils, whilst Steve Worrall picked up three from five rides for the visitors.
The other fixture in the third tier resulted in a 49-41 win for Opole against Tarnow, who would have gone top of the table ahead of Gniezno with an away victory.
Lambert and Bewley went head-to-head in Sweden on Tuesday as Lambert’s Vastervik pulled off a 47-42 win at Dackarna.

Ironically, Lambert dropped his only two points to Bewley as he top-scored for the visitors with 13 from five rides, whilst Bewley totalled ten for the hosts.

Elsewhere on a night of close contests, Indianerna were 46-44 winners at bottom club Vargarna with plenty more British involvement in the meeting as Chris Harris scored 10+1 from five rides at reserve for the hosts, whilst Brennan scored 3+1 from four for the visitors, who clinched victory with a 3-3 from Szymon Wozniak and Buczkowski in Heat 15.

Leaders Lejonen also picked up a narrow away win, 45-43 at Piraterna with the visitors coming from seven points down with five races remaining, helped by a 5-0 in Heat 13. Zmarzlik was in imperious form for the visitors with a 17+1 paid maximum from six rides.

There was another last heat decider at Eskilstuna where Smederna held on for a 45-44 win over Rospiggarna, with Rohan Tungate crucially splitting Laguta and Jakub Jamrog in Heat 15.

Tuesday’s action in the Under-24 Ekstraliga saw Anders Rowe play a vital role for Torun with 9+1 in their 46-44 win over Gorzow, with Rowe and Wiktor Lampart packing in for the 3-3 the home side needed in Heat 15 as Oskar Paluch won the race but Villads Nagel was kept at the back.

Leaders Leszno are four points clear at the top after a 53-37 win over Krosno with Keynan Rew scoring a five-ride paid maximum, whilst bottom club Lublin collected a 45-45 home draw with Zielona Gora, although the visitors comfortably took the bonus point.